Uzbekistan works with Ukraine

Uzbekistan works with Ukraine

KIEV (DPA): Two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, are to sign a basic treaty on friendship and cooperation during the visit of Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov to Kiev starting today.

During the visit, which will end tomorrow, Karimov is to hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma and Ukraine's prime minister and speaker of the parliament.

The talks are expected to concentrate on economic cooperation. Ukraine and Uzbekistan, which have boosted the volume of bilateral trade from US$20 million to $350 million for the last four years, are concerned about building transport corridors to facilitate transfer of goods between the two states.

"We see this problem to be solved via the Caucasus corridor, which has a strategic importance," the Ukrainian ambassador to Tashkent, Volodymyr Smetanin, told the Interfax news agency.